scottIN

Once you get accustomed to a car, you'll know the limits. If you're on the track, you have to decide if you want to run at 90% of the limit or 100% of it. If I'm out practicing in my kart, I'll run at 95% of the limit. In a race, it's 100%.

The interesting thing you learn (and anyone who has spent much time on a track knows it) is that you'll eventually know when to correct before you lose it. You get a sense of when it's going to slide, how it's going to slide and if you need to correct it before it does (sliding is not a bad thing - it's actually faster). It's hard to explain, but when you're driving at the limit you just know what's going to happen before it happens and you fix it so it doesn't happen (usually by a minute amount of steering input). But it takes time to learn.

Here's a good example. I'd say that I'm 'loose' in this photo, but chances are I just went into the corner too hot and the back end started to come around. I'm counter steering to correct it (and that's a TON of counter steer). I actually went past the limit, but was able to bring it back without spinning. When I had to correct it, it did slow me down and I wasn't able to use the whole width of the track, but it's better than spinning or driving it off. That's about a 70mph left-hander I'm in.